WPC Ace Dota 2 League Preview

WPC AceLeague 2013

WPC ACE League Preview

With the grand opening of The Shanghai E-Sports Competitive Center venue, WPC will be hosting the WPC ACE Dota 2 League, a bi-annual ACE Dota 2 League, featuring the best teams from China in an offline league running from September through December with a massive prize pool featuring a first place prize of $163,400. This is going to be one of the biggest Dota 2 leagues we have ever seen, and should help grow the eSports scene tremendously.

For this preview we will be bringing to you an introduction on WPC, ACE, SCNTV, and Jingruis, the organizations behind the ACE League. As we mentioned the top teams in China and the world will be competing, so we have a some Team Previews for you as well. And to top it all off CountChocula was nice enough to translate an interview with Executive Wu, who is one of the main men running it all.

We hope you enjoyed our preview of the ACE Dota 2 League, please follow it on TL from our LR Thread. Also visit the WPC/SCNTV website for more details.

WPC: A Brief Introduction

The WPC, World Esports Professional Classic, is the host for ACE Dota 2 League and is positioning itself to become a huge eSports brand in China. While professional Dota 2 is the focus for the international audience, there are three major parties making this and possibly future iterations of ACE Dota 2 possible. Two of these parties are largely newcomers to hosting national and international class Dota 2 events. These two parties likewise are extremely ambitious and the theme of WPC appears to be going as big as possible. The success and failure of this new Dota 2 League can have massive ramifications for the professional eSports scene in the years to come.

ACE

At the center of the competition is ACE, Association of China Esports, an organization that represents players and teams involved in the eSports business. But in this case, ACE is most concerned with the success of the league as players and clubs interest align. The most prominent mission of ACE is in stablizing the professional scene such that both clubs and players are no longer in danger of disbanding or losing their teams at a moments notice. Part of this has been the enforcement of contracts within the eSports circle. Part of this has been to engage sponsors for a regular league that can secure income and livelihood for professionals.

Close to a year ago, ACE attempted a smaller but similarly unprecedented event in War3 Dota and produced ACE Dota League with GTV. The 10 prominent professional teams of the Dota landscape converged for a three-month long league tournament. While first play prizes weren't much larger than those of G-League tournaments, ACE gave 30000 yuan to all participating teams as compensation for their time. Unfortunately despite the initiative ACE would see Royal, Tyloo, WE, and DTS dissolve immediately after conclusion of the league and would watch NA linger for another two months before also capitulating as teams transitioned to Dota 2.

The WPC ACE Dota 2 League is a second and larger attempt at regular Dota league. If successful, WPC will become a host of a regular league with a massive prize pool, and ACE will be well on its way to fulfilling its most important mission. Yet, by luring in large money, ACE is opening itself up to being caught in the crossfire of political moves by the big commercial interests. It also potentially exposes a conflict of interest within ACE itself as it tries to balance the interests of the players, clubs, and the league, and after this initial success a whole new set of problems will be exposed in the eSports scene. At the same time, ACE must fend off criticism coming from nationalistic fans that see the organization as more of hindrance to scene and culpable for the disappointing performance of Chinese teams at TI.

Jingruis

Historically, Jingruis has been a real-estate development company, consistently ranking top 100 in the country over the last decade. Jingruis has a particularly strong presence in Shanghai and the surrounding cities. With this investment into WPC, reputedly around 40 million yuan, Jingruis is using its real estate assets to break into the eSports business and help professional gaming gain wide social acceptance.

Jingruis's investment at the Shanghai Esports Center, a 3000 square meters competitive arena, consisting of a competitive hall, training rooms, game demo area, and memorabilia shops and lounge space, and the WPC brand is not only for the ACE Dota 2 League. ACE Dota 2 League is merely the first major event to be hosted at the site. Jingruis envisions hosting competitions at all times of year and will use other games to fill up ACE Dota 2 Leagues's estimated six months of down time.

In the future, Jingrui expects to expand the arena and WPC brand with additional 160 million yuan in investments and can use its political clout to push eSports into mainstream television. Based on press releases, Jingruis expects to increase both viewership and revenue by orders of magnitude above present levels and looks to large professional athletic leagues like the NBA for inspiration. Presently, WPC ACE will already have broken the 1 million yuan mark for prize purse and will only look to push it even higher.

SCNTV

SCNTV was brought into the project by Jingruis for the production and broadcast of the ACE Dota2 League. However, compare to the more experience organizations of Gamefy/SiTV or GTV, SCNTV is a complete newbie to production of professional competitive events of Dota 2 and games of its genre. The majority of SCNTV's content in the past year has been Starcraft:Broodwar competitive games, and their only contact with Dota 2 has been in hosting Na`Vi during their China stay: http://navi.scntv.com. There is little else beyond a few weeks of making several tutorials targeted at Dota 2 newbies. Thus, the opportunity offer by ACE Dota 2 League represents an ambitious foray deep into unchartered territory.

While SCNTV can apply the experience of involved with Netease's promotion of competitive Heroes of Three Kingdoms, a similar game to Dota 2, WPC ACE Dota 2 League will be a learning experience for the company and SCNTV may find itself out of its depth in the project. If on a few occasions, WPC ACE Dota 2 production appears rough around the edges, it is to be expect.

Team Previews

by TanGeng/Kupon3ss

DK

The Absolute Dream Team of Asian DotA, featuring the finalists of the solo Mid competition at TI3, the best carry in the world, and a pair of the finest supports in China, this might be the most star-studded lineup we have seen in a long time. The team will be one of the favourites at any tournament as long as it performs at even a mere fraction of its on-paper potential. Mushi as the mid player and BurNIng on carry are almost undisputedly the ideal players for those positions, with more experience between the two of them than most teams. The key of the team will be a convergent style that treads a fine balance between the early game dominance of the SEA superstars and the more steady and solid Chinese late-game in a team that can play and excel at any style.

The question on everybody's minds, however, is how such a team would be able to work together. The last time a team this stacked came together the Invictus Gaming of yesteryear took 6 months before it coalesced into the team that took TI2, and DK's road to becoming a well oiled machine will likely be no less of a herculean task. With 4 Ex-captains on the payroll and the personalities of players like IceIceIce clashing, the team will definitely have sparks flying one way or another as it attempts to live up to the hype already pointing towards Seattle once again.

iG

A bit overshadowed by DK and coming off a pair of roster changes, iG's new players in Hao and Banana are expected to greatly change the dynamic of the team. Hao's supremely aggressive style and focus on the midgame might function better alongside the playstyles of 430 and YYF, as opposed to a 4-1 that looked more like 4 - - - - 1 than a team. Of the team, 430 performed the best at TI3 and there's no indication that he's not still one of the most fearsome mid players in the world, and absolutely capable of taking over the game. YYF's play, on the other hand, had been rather disappointing to say the least and the departure of his long-time teammate and friend, Chuan, might not have the best effect on the veteran who's on the closer side of 30. Faith and Banana as a support pair will likely shine less than Chuan did but bring some additional solidity and stability for the 3 core players to excel.

IG's never really had a problem with talent or skill, but rather one with personalities. Ever since their creation out of a pair of teams, conflicting ego and play-style has always been a thorn at the team's side. While Banana might be the happy-go-lucky veteran who's willing to go with the flow, Hao definitely brings fire wherever he goes and much of the team's future will rest on how well they will fit together and whether a command structure can be established with Zhou gone. If the team's performance during the Sina Cup was any indication, they're well on their journey of a thousand miles toward reclaiming their spot at the top of the world.

LGD.cn

The most disappointing of the major Chinese Teams at TI3 is also the one for whom the change has been the smallest, merely changing Sylar for Xiaotuji without any fundamental changes in either play-style or structure. The team's main failing has been how stagnant and predictable it has become up to Xiao8 to refocus the team more toward the game than on publicity and business. The core of the team remains intact and Xiaotuji definitely shows the potential to become another top carry as long as the team can find its footing. The biggest challenge is for the team to come to terms with the demise of the traditional 4-1 style and work on some that doesn't involve playing from behind from minute one.

The departure of Sylar was not on the best of terms and the rest of the team might be looking for a way to start fresh after the debacle at TI3. Xiao8, Yao, DD, and DDc have been friends and teammates for a long time and it will only be a matter of time before Xiaotuji integrates with the team. The problem in predictability and a slight deficiency in individual skill did rear its ugly head in their loss to TongFu during the SinaCup Loser Finals.

Rstars

Risingstars is an eclectic squad of players who've left their teams for one reason or another. The list of players is a healthy balance of seasoned veterans such as KingJ and 357 with talented newcomers like CTY and xDD playing around Sylar, who remains one of the best all-around carries in the scene. The key to the team will be discovering their identity and style as a mish-mash of ideas and players come together to start fresh. Will it be CTY's snowballing, Sylar's farming, or KingJ's methodical style that emerge as the soul of the team?

All of the players have baggage on their backs, and their own unfulfilled dreams riding on this new team as they try to show the world what a team of underdogs can accomplish.

Rsnake

Rattlesnake's run at TI3 was about what they expected, which is more than could be said of the other Chinese Teams. With the loss of Kabu and Lanm, the organization has decided to rest their hopes on a pair of untested talent in the form of AllBeautyMustDie and JoHnNyRecco. As a historically subpar team armed with unproven talent, not much is expected of the team now that it has lost its main star in Lanm. Yet as long as Luo remains and the team is willing to play the role of the spoiler, the Snakes may continue to surprise.

Tongfu

Of the major Chinese Dota 2 clubs, Tongfu is the team that acquired the greatest amount of potential upside in the flurry of player transfers. The three new players on the team are all high ceiling players that have either fallen from peak performance or are emerging talents bubbling to breakout. Zhou is the fallen star. In the months preceding TI, Zhou showed signs of degrading Dota 2 fundamentals and immediately found himself out of iG's future after the tournament. He will hope to recover the form that placed him among China's legendary carries of Dota. ZSMJ is a mixture of the fallen star and emerging talent in that ZSMJ made his name in Dota but retired in 2011 without ever playing Dota 2. Coming back of out retirement with VG, ZSMJ struggled to establish himself as a carry in the new game. Now, ZSMJ is plying his trade at support and his many fans will be cheering for him once again conquer the Chinese scene. Xtt is the budding talent now in his second year as professional gamer. Touted by YYF as a wonderfully solid offlane player, Xtt is hoping to prove all of his boosters correct and his doubters wrong.

Gone from Tongfu are stalwarts, KingJ and Banana, and aggressive carry, Hao, and the team will require at least several games to rebuild teamwork and coordination close to that of a serviceable team. Once that happens, should the new players at Tongfu fully unlock their power, Tongfu will once again be a formidable force and will be frontrunners for taking home the ACE Dota 2 championship. But if they do not, Tongfu will be the team most weakened by the roster shuffles and the organization will once again be relegated to the ranks of second tier Chinese teams. Tongfu will be a team to follow in ACE. The star power of the double Z's is nearly unrivaled, and it will be exciting to see if the upside of their roster materializes.

LGD.int

LGD.int were not in China for the photo shoot

As recent as ten days ago, this team wasn't even supposed to exist. Due to lack of interest and in light of commitments by former players to clubs in their respective home countries, LGD were very pessimistic in public announcements, suggesting that the organization was virtually giving up on the project. The LGD.int experiment seemed all but dead and buried. But now ACE Dota 2 League will be the debut of a new LGD.int roster that sees three members of its TI squad return while adding former Mouz carry, Black^, and former Zenith support, Freedom.

Ostensibly, the departure of G from the team should help the team, since the Russian's language limitations hindered communication and his suicidal initiation play-style made LGD.int strong but one-dimensional in strategies. However, the addition of Black^ at Pajkatt's original position will displace Pajkatt into the middle lane solo role. At the same time, LGD.int will be revisiting the aborted experiment of playing Brax in support and moving Misery to the hard lane. As for Freedom, the Singaporean feels like a fifth wheel in all of this. While LGD.int still somewhat feels like a team that is just thrown together, it big improvement over last year as the team retains three core players. Yet, the team may not replicate last year's success in G-League unless they can again uncover a dominating strategy that suits their new team.

For viewers and fans, the team's first couple games should not be used as any indication of the team's strength or potential, because out of all the teams, LGD.int will be the last to arrive in Shanghai. The team will will play its first match against iG cold and will have had virtually no time to practice as a team.

Vici Gaming

Vici Gaming was the first major Chinese team to finalize team rosters. The team quickly acquired Super and RotK from DK and announced the departure of ZSMJ and Cty. In making these roster adjustments, the team lost individual talent and potential but added leadership, drafting, and experience. After these transfers, team members now complement each other much better than before, and there is a veteran presence to help the team recover when the individual engagements don't go as planned.

Super, as solo-mid, is not flashy but is rock solid, and Vici Gaming can anchor their play around Super. This frees their talented support duo Fenrir and fy for playmaking without having to worry about Super unexpectedly diving into bad situations. Likewise, the addition of RotK improves VG's drafting by quite a margin. Of course, this improvement comes at the cost of potential aggressive feeding. The carry player on the team is Tutu, a long time understudy of Burning at DK and strangely has the same exact name as RotK.

WPC Selection Team 1

As part of its ACE Dota 2 League project, WPC embarked on the project of injecting new blood into the Dota 2 professional scene. Selection Team 1 exhibits just how far WPC is willing to go. The team is full of raw talent that have played at the pub level for years, but have little or no high-level competitive team experience. Four of the five members do not have any competitive achievements related to Dota or Dota 2 in the professional or amateur scene. The fifth and final member has only competed at the local level in Changsha, Hunan and took a few second and third places in those competitions.

It cannot be overstate how raw and inexperienced the team of cherry, uuu9, Mtsty, yj, and An are on an individual basis. Then add on the fact that they have been essentially thrown together like matchsticks by WPC, it is extremely unlikely that this team will be able to pose a challenge for even the weakest of professional clubs. Challenging for the championship slots is utterly out of the question. However, these individual will get a taste of life as professional gamers and perhaps one of them will be the diamond in a rough and shine as a brilliant star in the future.

Heart Get Together

In contrast to the first team, the team of wyt, xiaolv, cys, xiaohong, and ice is a more experienced pool of players from a competitive War3 Dota perspective. For example, xiaolv played on Ag-Fox for the second half of 2012, and the other members have achievements in various Dota 2 amateur and scholastic competitions of late 2012 as the professional scene was transitioning over to Dota 2. The second team is still a long shot to pose a challenge for professional teams. But compared to pure pub players, its team members here are likely to gel faster and develop good teamwork and less likely to breakdown due to player. incompatibilities.

Interview with Executive Wu

Translated by CountChocula

On July 31st 2013 the first dedicated eSports arena in China, Shanghai Esports Center, was inaugurated at the Four Seasons Hotel. Shanghai Esports Center is located at Baoshan, Shanghai at the Jingrui Plaza. It was built by investment from Jingrui Properties Ltd. and intended to be a base for the esports industry for tournament organizers, exhibition hall for new games, a training area for teams, as well as a development hall for young players. The purpose to make a center dedicated to eSports not just for Shanghai, but all of China. Along with the inauguration, it was announced that the World Esports Professional Classic (WPC) would be organized and hosted here. The secretary-general of the Shanghai Esports Association Chen Yaoji, the vice-chairman of Jinrui Properties Ltd. Wu Wei and the CEO of Jinrui Cultural Development Ltd. Yi Yuanyuan together pressed the button that began the grand opening.

Following the opening ceremony, media were able to interview the vice-chairman of Jinrui Properties Ltd. Wu Wei. Mr. Wu discussed with frank reassurance what it was that led Jinrui Properties Ltd. to choose the esports industry. Let us take a look together.

Executive Wu, what is your attitude towards the eSports industry?

Right now, esports is in a grassroots stage. I hope our entrance will bring a new order. Our cooperation with ACE will bring a new type of league and greatly improve sustainability and environment for clubs and players, so that players can feel at ease about the professionalization of their industry. Also, we've signed contracts with all the clubs to show respect for their interests.

Will Jinrui Properties Ltd. train its own club and professional players?

We won't be training our own club and professional players. We will emphasize on building the Dota 2 ACE League just like how NBA built an excellent league, and secure society's acceptance.

Will the World Esports Professional Classic (WPC) have foreign clubs attending?

Currently, we're focusing on top-tier domestic teams, but we won't eliminate the possibility of foreign teams attending in the future.

Jinruis Properties Ltd. chose to enter the esports industry and even built the Shanghai Esports Center. Where will the profit be for you?

Right now, I don't want to discuss how much money we can make. Currently, the eSports industry is not very sustainable, but we are hoping that through the ACE League we have helped to build, our profit margin will progressively grow. As long as the censorship bureau lifts its ban on eSports, this industry will develop rapidly (TL note: He is talking about a CCTV ban on esports programs on network TV dating back to 2004). Our profit margin will grow likewise.

Do you have any cooperation with Perfect World?

This is a trade secret, but I can tell you that us and Perfect World along with Valve have very good cooperation.

You mentioned the league will imitate the NBA. Can you divulge any particular similarities?

Things that NBA is successful at--like their annual draft and their salary cap. We'll also consult the regulations they've passed, their way of collecting money for emergency assistance funds, their way of getting players and clubs to comply, and not letting players switch teams without restriction. We want to create order, and allow clubs and players to prosper in a sustainable industry governed by rules, so that the industry can develop in a more professional direction.

What is your attitude towards the Dota 2 Super League (DSL) and the Fengyun Esports Studio? Will they become a rival to your league and your esports arena?

We rely on ourselves, while they rely on the government. However, there is something I can put this way, which is regarding their market dominance in the past. Their DSL earlier this year was due to us not having enough time. Our arena could only be completed in August. We didn't want the clubs to be affected by our time frame but, to put it bluntly, the latter part of your question won't happen, because us and ACE are in direct cooperation. In the future, leagues will happen in our arena. We have signed exclusivity contracts with ACE and the clubs to the effect that they can only attend our competitions. Of course international competitions are an exception.

Regarding the sustainable development of eSports, do you have any ideas on how new players can be found to replace the old?

Our long-term goal is to establish a two-tiered league with the bottom two teams doing relegation matches with the top Tier 2 teams.

What is your attitude towards the casting organization SCNTV?

We are in touch with a lot of casting organizations and we've evaluated them. Even though some organizations may not have as much experience and influence, they have the conviction and determination to grow in step with us. We want to give these organizations an opportunity. Also there are some organizations that are the exact opposite.

Are there any similarities between the eSports industry and the real estate industry you are in at the moment?

Both real estate and eSports are very exhausting industries to work in. A portion of the populace thinks real estate people are all ruthless and vicious housing developers, while eSports also faces an unsympathetic segment of public opinion. So is there nothing good in real estate and eSports? Definitely not! Both have the same sort of spirit--a spirit that strives unremittingly for success. This is why I want to make the eSports industry turn out well, relying on my industry-specific ability at promoting the game and my excellent resource integrating abilities, so we can show society and the populace the true potential of eSports. We are full of confidence in ourselves and the eSports industry.

In the future, leagues will happen in our arena. We have signed exclusivity contracts with ACE and the clubs to the effect that they can only attend our competitions.

Big fish has just entered the pool.

I didn't expect interview to be this frank though, and I can't say I dig the attitude of "closed (high entrance requirements) market". Before ACE was speaking about restricting pro teams to compete in low-cost half-amateur tournaments, and it made sense. With this kind of statement I see pro teams competing only in WPC and Gamefy leagues, because I sincerely doubt G-1 or ECL could pay for the rent of the new stadion as well as increasing the prize pool to the G-League / DSL level.

This is undebatable huge step forward for esports (first Dota league to hold as much money as Tencent's LPL), if only you could given chances for smaller guys to make tourneys driven by passion, not profit, it would be only better. G-1 Dota 2 tournaments, despite their unorthodox format and lower production value than G-League and DSL, were, in my opinion, the most important ones so far..

Where the heck is my BigGod flair?? proud mainer of MKX Reptile/D'vorrah

We are in touch with a lot of casting organizations and we've evaluated them. Even though some organizations may not have as much experience and influence, they have the conviction and determination to grow in step with us. We want to give these organizations an opportunity. Also there are some organizations that are the exact opposite.

#shotsfired

Also digging ou a month old interview to translate. I wonder whose idea that was

This is a really cool initiative, I especially love the experimental team made out of experienced pub players, their willingness to at least try to discover new talent is both refreshing and inspirational.

I hope everything goes well, having a stable, year round league in China could go a long way in helping them both regain their old strength and to support more players going pro.

What am I without a challenge? An opportunity to better myself? A chance to shoot for the stars? An struggle for perfection? I am nothing, I live for the challenge.

two things. dreamk is the team to watch. if.they can work well together it will be difficult to beat them. second. whether or not lgd.int can be successful. they have a lot of.talent but need some mesh and everyone needs to speak english with some level of fluency.

also what's the timeline for.the tourney? like its a three month league (I might have missed this in reading) ? and in the future is the league invite only or will.their be qualifier spots ? and will we see a second interation before ti4 so rsnake.int can take part ? would be good to see how rsnake.int measure up in this kinda league.

also possible international venue in china now ? since the international has been to europe and na.